U.S. Birth Rate Drops To 109-Year Low

The number of babies being born in the United States continues to fall, with the birth rate reaching a new record low in 2017, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last year, about 3.8 million babies were born in the U.S., which is 2 percent lower than the number born in 2016, and the lowest recorded number of births in 30 years, according to the report.

What’s more, there were about 60 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, which is 3 percent lower than the rate in 2016, and the lowest recorded rate since the government started tracking birth rates in 1909.

On the up side, the birth rate among teens fell a full 7 percent between 2016 and 2017 to just 19 births per 1,000 teen girls ages 15 to 19. But birth rates also fell among women under the age of 40, and hit record lows for women in their 20s.

It’s not a terrible surprise, and one that’s sure to please critics of the human populace. More and more Millennials are choosing to adopt puppies and grow piles of ferns and succulents rather than have children. When it comes to marriage, 42 is the new 24, with many choosing to forgo having kids at all.

If a pregnancy does happen to come along, abortion’s billed as an easy fix for those not looking to strap on a BabyBjorn. Nearly a million babies were aborted in 2017, lives that had they not prematurely been ended would have brought the total number of births in the U.S. to about 4.8 million.

Factoring in the roughly 1 million pregnancies lost to miscarriage and natural loss, this means roughly one in six children conceived in the United States is aborted.